Translating for Singing: The Theory, Art and Craft of Translating Lyrics

Translating for Singing discusses the art and craft of translating singable lyrics, a topic of interest in a wide range of fields, including translation, music, creative writing, cultural studies, performance studies, and semiotics. Previously, such translation has most often been discussed by music critics, many of whom had neither training nor experience in this area. Written by two internationally-known translators, the book focusses mainly on practical techniques for creating translations meant to be sung to pre-existing music, with suggested solutions to such linguistic problems as those associated with rhythm, syllable count, vocal burden, rhyme, repetition and sound. Translation theory and translations of lyrics for other purposes, such as surtitles, are also covered.

The book can serve as a primary text in courses on translating lyrics and as a reference and supplementary text for other courses and for professionals in the fields mentioned. Beyond academia, the book is of interest to professional translators and to librettists, singers, conductors, stage directors, and audience members.

Ronnie Apter is Professor Emerita of English at Central Michigan University, USA. She is the author of two books, Digging for the Treasure: Translation After Pound (Lang, 1984; reprint Paragon House 1987) and A Bilingual Edition of the Love Songs of Bernart de Ventadorn in Occitan and English: Sugar and Salt (Mellen, 1999). She is the author or co-author of numerous articles which have appeared in American journals such as Ars Lyrica and Translation Review and in the British journal In Other Words, and of poetry translations appearing in Two Lines, The Literary Review, The New Orleans Review, Metamorphoses, The Classical Outlook, and elsewhere, and in several anthologies. Many of her 22 translations of operas, operettas, and choral works, written in collaboration with Mark Herman, have been performed in the United States, Canada, England, and Scotland, and have been praised in periodicals ranging from The New York Times to The [London] Times.

Mark Herman is a literary translator, technical translator, chemical engineer, playwright, musician, and actor. For over two decades he has written the ’Humor and Translation Column’ appearing monthly in The ATA Chronicle, the journal of the American Translators Association. Many of his book reviews have appeared in Ars Lyrica. He frequently collaborates with Ronnie Apter.